First Things First
The new school year started strong in September, with dedicated directors, staff, and volunteers launching into Agape Preschool, Greek School, and Church School for another great year. The Agape Preschool reintroduced a kindergarten class this year due to strong demand and parent advocacy. The Garden and Environmental Clubs are now combined as the Care for Creation Ministry, which led the Gardening Day with the Church School children to beautify our grounds. The Catechism Class this fall leverages the talents of our theologically trained clergy, presbyteras, and lay people to provide 12 weeks of instruction for seekers of the faith, whether new to Orthodoxy or born into the Church and desiring a fuller view on how to live the faith today.
The Heart of the Matter
My wife and I dropped off our two sons at colleges this August and became empty nesters for the first time this fall, marking a significant change in our family life. Autumn seems an appropriate time of year to consider change, but especially this year and especially for our Saints Peter and Paul Parish.
From a Parish Council view, managing change is a critical factor for parish success. The strategic plan has been active for four years, guiding key changes in staffing, ministry offerings, and focus at multiple levels. The next change to manage is more difficult becaues it will require each of us in the parish family to pray about and seriously reflect on a much needed change in giving habits.
In the early years of the parish stewardship program (which began in the late 1970s), parishioner stewardship enabled a balanced budget, which in turn enabled festivals and fund raisers to be designated for special projects, whether maintaining or adding to our infrastructure. That was before cell phones, before Comcast triple plays, and before Starbucks was on every street corner. But these examples of worldly cares crept up on us. Our parish average stewardship was ~$1000/family in 1999, when the inflation rate caught up with the equivalent to 1979 $350 dues. In 2009, a decade ago, Fr. Angelo Artemas wrote in that December’s Messenger that “stewardship is one big failed …experiment,” as our parish average remained at ~$1000 but inflation suggested the average should have been $1200. In 2018, the parish stewardship average remains at ~$1000 annually, far short of the nearly $1900 annually that nominal GDP per capita shows as equivalent to the 1979 dues. The practical impact is that maintenance items have been deferred, fundraisers are required to balance the operating budget, and the parish’s ability to lead is diminished within the community, the Metropolis, and the Archdiocese. This is not the change we are seeking in our community.
A simple change in giving habits could easily put us back on the course set by our parish founders. Rather than remain stagnate at $1000 per year, consider estimating 2% or more of your income (still far less than the biblical tithe of 10%). At the very least, consider offering a stewardship that is greater than your cellphone and cable or internet bills. With 600 families pledging at least $1900/year on average, our stewardship income would be at over one million dollars, enough to not only balance the budget, but also to meet facility needs annually, and be better stewards in our community. Change in habit, change in thinking, change in giving. Fall is the time for change.